After trying to do UML Use Cases in Microsoft Word (2003) for the past 2 weeks I finally decided that I’ve had it. The way Word deals with lists is great for 99% of the population out there, but it drives you mad when you are trying to put in ordered lists that begin with a certain seed.
So after Word crashed numerous times (each time deleting auto-save versions) and freezing every hour (again, deleting the auto-save), I decided to do some tool evaluation just to see what’s out there.
I looked at a number of different Use Case authoring tools and decided on Case Complete by Serlio Software.
The training demo and tutorial doc were clear, concise, and allowed me to learn the product in a couple of hours. I transferred all my use cases in Word over in less than a day (all 94 of them), and the template for creating a Word report was easy enough to configure.
The pricing was a little higher than I expected, but since it has allowed me to do in a day what it took me a week to accomplish in Word, I think it’s worth every penny.
Some highlights of the functionality:
- Allows you to break your use case project up into separate files (all stored as XML) so that you can store it in Source Safe and allow users to only check out the section they need. I’ve had two people working on the use cases with no problems.
- Automatic renumbering that will also update your exception steps. If you attach an exception to step 2, then move step 2 to 3, it will update the exception to step 3 as well. Even typing ‘Continue at Step 4’ in an exception will cause it to change if step 4 were ever renumbered.
- Link to other Use Cases or Requirements. All you have to do is highlight some text or just right click on an empty space and it’s easy as pie to add a link to another item.
- Intellisense like underlining that allows you to hover over words that are either defined in your glossary or as an actor that bring up tool tips showing their descriptions.
- Refactoring – If a single use case needs to be broken into two, highlight the steps, right click, create new use case, done.
All in all, it’s a great UI that’s packed with features. It’s definitely helped with our productivity by leaps and bounds.
-Eric Marvets